Pups Love This “Summer Cooler” Recipe – Made Especially for Hot Weather

Psst - Turkey is a great substitute for cod in this recipe!

Food is life. And eating the right foods at the right times leads to a vibrant, thriving life. This holds true for your dog and you! 

A “balanced diet” means more than getting the right amounts of macronutrients like protein, carbohydrates, fats. It also goes beyond the correct ratios of micronutrients like vitamins and minerals that AAFCO requires for “Complete and Balanced” claims on pet food labels. 

A balanced diet also means balancing the energetic qualities of the food your dog eats with her body (i.e. internal energy) and the external energetic influences of seasons and weather patterns. Health and harmony result when the energetic qualities all these things align.  

We’ve talked about the energetic qualities of food.  Food influences the body on a spectrum of hot to cold and dampening to drying. Think of them as four quadrants, with temperature on the X-axis, and dampness on the Y-axis. If its winter in New England, you would want to opt for warming foods. If its summer in the south, choose cooling nutrients like white fish, turkey and celery.

Summer Cooler Inspiration

Here is a nutritious, species-appropriate recipe for homemade dog food your pup to enjoy in the heat of summer. It harnesses the energetically cooling and non-dampening properties of cod with healthy amounts of cooling cruciferous veggies like broccoli, cucumber and celery.  In hot weather, you can skip the starch.  Lean ground turkey or rabbit are super substitutes for cod as they're also energetically cooling.

Cod is light in calories. It's a great choice if your dog is a little thick around the middle.  If she's lean and high energy, then you may have to give her some extra rations.  But dogs tend to have lower appetites in the summer so the amounts here may be just fine.

This recipe is rounded out with an egg (including the shell for calcium), ripe strawberries for antioxidants and enzymes, and oysters for copper and zinc. We either freeze or lightly steam the veggies to aid in digestion.  We also steam the fish in this recipe as we are not a fan of serving raw fish to dogs.  If you're using ground turkey and are a fan of raw, then by all means go raw! Raw food is energetically cooling and so it's perfectly fitting for the season!

This recipe is built on the formula for a well-balanced homemade healthy diet for dogs created by Dr. Nathan Heilman DVM of Qi Veterinary Clinic.

Making it Complete and Balanced for Puppies

This recipe is complete and balanced for an adult dog.  Nutritional information is at the end.  If you are making this recipe for a puppy, you will need to add bonemeal to get her calcium and phosphorus needs met.  We have indicated that modification to the recipe as well.  Be sure it is the edible kind of bonemeal - not the fertilizer kind.  We like NOW Brand bonemeal.  (This and other special considerations for puppies are available on our nutritional page.)

How To

Tools needed:  

Food processor, small kitchen scale (note: recipe measurements are done by weight, not volume), knife, cutting board, peeler, teaspoon.  

Ingredients:  

24 oz of gently steamed boneless Icelandic cod filets. (Alternative: 93% lean ground turkey lightly cooked or raw) 

4.8 oz turkey giblets (lightly cooked or raw) 

4 oz steamed broccoli

3 oz steamed celery

2 oz cucumber

1 eggs (reserve the shell)

1 oz canned oysters

2 oz fresh strawberries

Multi-vitamin (per package dosage). We like using 1.5 tsp of RX Essentials for Dogs 

1.5 tsp 18/12 fish oil (herring, mackerel, sardine)

1 pinch salt

Modification for puppies:  If using Cod, add 1/2 tsp bonemeal.  If using turkey, add 4 tsp bonemeal. (we like NOW brand)

Directions: 

Working in batches, start by placing the 24 oz of steamed cod in the work bowl of a food processor and process until smooth. Empty the cod into a large mixing bowl. (If you’re using ground turkey instead, just skip the food processor and add the ground turkey right to the mixing bowl.) Add eggs, reserving the shells.

Next, combine broccoli, cucumber, celery, strawberries, cooked turkey giblets, oysters, and eggshell into the large work bowl of the food processor. Puree until smooth. Add to cod (or turkey) mixture. 

Add the multi-vitamin, fish oil, and a pinch of salt to the mixture. Fold together until thoroughly combined.  

There's a big calorie difference between lean raw turkey and cod.  Both of these calorie and macronutrient variations are listed below. Serving two to three meals per day is recommended as one large meal can create dampness - an eastern medicine view of imbalance in the body related to health issues. 

Adjust serving size based on size and metabolic needs of your dog. This mixture can be stored in the fridge in a container with a tight-fitting lid for one week. It also can be turned into your own homemade kibble in a few easy steps like the ones we did for making delicious treats with kale!

Looking for Some Human Grade Dog Treats?

All dogs love snacks. There are some wonderful high-protein, USA made, USA sourced human grade treats to accompany this recipe that you can include in your rotation of healthy snacks. Human-grade single-ingredient turkey jerky for dogs like Hula Lula Turkey jerky from Goodness Gracious is one option.

If your dog loves cookies then gluten-free Honey Poached Salmon (with wild Alaskan Salmon) is a tasty choice!  You can also try making your own jerky or cookies – but then you might not get out of the kitchen to enjoy the summer fun! 

Goodness Gracious

Here at Goodness Gracious we are all about harnessing the power of simple whole foods to achieve optimum health – a state of being where internal and external energies are harmonious. We make collections of single ingredient jerky treats for dogs, limited ingredient meaty strips, and gluten free and grain free cookies, high protein training treats, and species-appropriate chews that cover the range of energies from cool to hot, and drying to moistening. There’s a perfect choice in our collections for every season and every dog, and everything is always human edible. Come visit us today to find out more.

Nutritional Facts

References:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S168742851400020X#:~:text=The%20taurine%20content%20is%20high,et%20al.%2C%202006).